Bill Clinton is in Louisville (Butler High School @3:30), Bardstown and John Hardin High School in Elizabethtown today. [Press Release]

Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo, State Rep. Dennis Keene and unknown Owen County Administrator Bill O’Bannon will hold a conference call to discuss Barack Obama’s rural leadership plan for Kentucky. [Press Release]

And in Bowling Green, Admiral John B. Nathan and Brigadier General James Smith will hold a discussion with veterans and military families at the Shake Rag Restaurant at 12:30 Central Time. [Press Release]

From the Captain Obvious Department of Duh we learn that Kentuckians favor higher cigarette taxes. Actually, 55% favor taxes of $0.70 to $1.00 per pack. Only 34% oppose. Imagine that. Both the governor and the retarded ass legislature out-of-touch. Can you imagine? [PolWatchers]

Mitch McConnell caused a Senate meltdown yesterday by dumping the Republican version of a G.I. bill into an unrelated floor debate on union rights of firefighters and police officers. Thankfully, the Senate voted 55-42 to table the Republican amendment and the Democratic bill will be attached to the Iraq bill next week. [Politico]

Speaking of McConnell, he has an opponent in the Republican primary named Daniel Essek, a Whitley County truck driver who couldn’t get off work in order to attend the KET debate on Monday. He’d only spent $824 in the first month of his campaign. Is anyone holding their breath on this? Not even sarcastically? [C-J]

In case you were wondering why Kentucky has been flushed down the toilet for, like, ever? The state spends over $400,000 (OF TAX DOLLARS!) a year to promote the coal industry. We just give coal companies this cash to promote their industry. Choice quote, “The environmentalists throw out a lot of negative stuff, like kids who are suffering from asthma because they breathe particulate matter from living near a coal-fired power plant, or deaths caused on the roads by big coal trucks,” Caylor said. “We’re trying to counteract that.” [H-L]